1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system for efficiently manufacturing large numbers of xe2x80x9csmartxe2x80x9d cards, each card having an electronic chip mounted thereon in which to receive, transmit and store data. The system is adapted to install wire antennas within a plastic sheet so as to lie in communication with the electronic chips of respective smart cards that are formed on the sheet.
2. Background Art
Plastic cards have long been used for the purposes of making credit and debit transactions, operating magnetic locks, providing a means of personal identification, etc. Such cards typically include a permanent magnetic strip on which predetermined information is encoded. However, such permanent magnetic strip is known to wear out over time so as to necessitate a replacement of the card on which the strip is carried. Consequently, the life and application of this type of card is undesirably limited.
What is more, the conventional magnetically encoded cards are passive in nature. That is to say, the information stored on the permanent magnetic strips cannot be changed without issuing an altogether new card. In this same regard, the conventional magnetic strip cards must be placed within or in close proximity to a card reader to be effective. This increases the cost and complexity of a card system like that described above.
To overcome the aforementioned disadvantages of a permanent magnetic strip card, non-contact smart cards have been manufactured that carry one or more electronic chips by which large amounts of information can be transmitted, received and stored. To be effective, such smart cards require an antenna to enable their chips to communicate with external data transmitters/receivers without using a card reader. In this case, the card carries no on-board source of power, and a radio frequency energy source is used to excite the antenna to activate the chips to enable the reading, writing and storage of data.
Unfortunately, the apparatus for installing antennas in the smart cards is slow, cumbersome and generally inefficient. More particularly, motor driven machines have been commonly used to attach the antennas to the cards. These machines are characterized by many gears and shafts which often results in increased tension within the antenna feed line and, therefore, breaking the feed line and/or jamming of the machines. Consequently, the machines are subject to frequent repairs and down time and, accordingly, are not ideally suited for manufacturing large numbers of cards on which a corresponding large number of antennas must be installed in a relatively short time.
A high speed system is described by which copper antenna wires are embedded within an array of smart cards that are manufactured on a plastic sheet so as to lie in electrical contact with electronic chips that are mounted on respective cards. The system includes a slide assembly that carries an ultrasonic actuator. The tip of the ultrasonic actuator is connected to receive a supply of ultrasonic energy for melting a plastic card to form a path in which an antenna wire is to be embedded. There is a channel formed in the tip of the ultrasonic actuator through which a run of the antenna wire is fed so that an antenna may be installed at high speed directly within the path burned in the card.
The slide assembly is adapted to reciprocate to correspondingly move the ultrasonic actuator in up and down directions relative to the plastic sheet so as to be repositioned from card-to-card of the array thereof. The slide assembly includes a voicecoil that receives a DC current. The voicecoil is arranged in spaced alignment with a stationary voicecoil magnet. Depending upon the direction of the DC current received by the voicecoil, the slide assembly and the ultrasonic actuator carried thereby will move in a downward direction towards the plastic sheet of cards when the polarities of the voicecoil and the stationary voicecoil magnet are opposite. The slide assembly and the ultrasonic actuator carried thereby will then move in an upward direction away from the plastic sheet of cards when the polarities of the voicecoil and the stationary voicecoil magnet are identical.
Antenna wire is delivered along a wire feed path from a wire dispensing spool to the tip of the ultrasonic actuator via an idler assembly that smoothes the delivery of the wire and a solenoid actuated clamping assembly that holds the wire to be embedded within a plastic card. The speed and direction in which the wire dispensing spool is rotated is controlled by a spool motor. A spool motor shaft encoder is coupled to the shaft of the spool motor to provide an indication of the speed and direction in which the wire dispensing spool is rotated.
The idler assembly located between the wire dispensing spool and the ultrasonic actuator includes a plurality of idler wheels over which the antenna wire is wound. The idler wheels feed the antenna wire to a pulley wheel that is rotated by a pulley motor at a constant speed and in a single direction to avoid binding along the antenna wire feed path. The idler assembly includes an idler arm having idler wheels connected at opposite ends thereof. The idler arm is caused to rotate in the event that tension increases in the wire feed path. An idler arm encoder is responsive to the rotation of the idler arm as an indication of increasing tension in the antenna wire feed path. The direction and speed of the spool motor and the wire dispensing spool rotated thereby is controlled depending upon the information provided by the spool motor shaft encoder and the idler arm encoder until the tension in the wire feed path is eliminated so as to ensure a high speed, efficient installation of the antenna wires in the array of plastic cards.